New Men

Today's Reading

Read 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

Then read Revelation 21:5: "And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'"

Reflection

Lewis ends Mere Christianity not with a conclusion but with a vision — a portrait of what human beings will look like when God's transforming work is complete.

The "New Men" (and women) are not less human than we are now. They are more human. They are what humanity was always meant to be — fully alive, radiantly individual, utterly themselves. And here Lewis makes his most paradoxical claim of all.

"The more we get what we now call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become... It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own."

This overturns the modern assumption that surrendering to God means losing your individuality. Lewis argues the exact opposite. It is sin that makes people boring and predictable — every addict looks the same, every narcissist tells the same story. It is holiness that produces originality. The saints are the most distinctive, most surprising, most irreplaceably themselves of all people.

Think of the variety: Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas, Julian of Norwich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mother Teresa and G.K. Chesterton. Each utterly unique. Each unmistakably shaped by Christ.

Lewis closes with a statement of breathtaking simplicity.

"Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."

This is the final word of Mere Christianity: everything you are looking for — meaning, identity, love, joy, purpose — is found not by grasping for it directly but by looking at Christ. He is not a competitor to your flourishing. He is the source of it.

Paul declares in 2 Corinthians: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." Not a repaired creation, not an improved creation, but a new creation. And Revelation extends the vision to cosmic scope: "Behold, I am making all things new." Not just individuals but all of creation — every broken thing healed, every lost thing found, every groaning atom set free.

Going Deeper

You have walked through the entire argument of Mere Christianity — from the universal moral law to the vision of a renewed humanity. Lewis began with what everyone knows (that there is a standard of right and wrong) and ended with what Christians hope for (that we will become fully alive, fully ourselves, fully His).

The journey does not end here. In a sense, it is only beginning. Lewis would remind you that reading about the Christian life is not the same as living it. The argument has been made. The invitation stands. What remains is the daily, ordinary, unglamorous work of letting God have His way with you — of dying to self and being raised to new life, one day at a time.

"Behold, I am making all things new."